QUT is proud to add its voice to the public acknowledgement of the unique contributions to Australian media, culture and public life of Brian Johns, who died on January 1, 2015, at age 79.
Starting his career as a journalist, and becoming the Canberra chief political correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald, Brian Johns worked in the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet under both the Whitlam and Fraser governments. He went to be publishing director at Penguin Books in 1979, before being appointed Managing Director of the Special Broadcasting Service from 1987 to 1992, and the first Chair of the newly established Australian Broadcasting Authority.
In the role that he is best known for, Brian Johns was Managing Director of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation from 1995 to 2000. After that time, he became an Adjunct Professor in the Creative Industries Faculty at QUT and Chair of university's cultural precinct. He also served as a director on the board of the Copyright Agency Limited, and was chairman from 2004 to 2009, and was a director of the Board of Melbourne University Publishing.
During his time at QUT, Brian Johns worked with Distinguished Professors Stuart Cunningham and John Hartley, and with staff in the newly created Creative Industries Faculty, to take a very active role in advising on how to structure the ambitious new faculty.
In his obituary for Brian Johns, QUT Professor of Media and Communications Terry Flew described how Johns had advised on how to best take advantage of the opportunities presented by digital technologies to revitalise arts and culture, as well as professional fields such as journalism, in which he took a particularly active interest.
“Brian Johns was particularly keen to talk about was the opportunities presented by digital technologies for Australian arts, media and culture, as well as the potential dangers,” Professor Flew wrote.
“For Brian, the biggest risk was not presented by new technologies themselves, but by failing to respond to their radical changes they were bringing to these industries and professions.
“He brought such a pro-active approach to his time at both the SBS and the ABC. Mark Scott has paid tribute to Brian as the person who clearly grasped the need for the ABC to be at the forefront of adopting the new digital technologies if it was going to remain relevant to Australians, and hence maintain the levels of public support that were the best guarantor of ongoing funding in times of great political turbulence for the national broadcaster.
“There were two particularly important lessons that could be taken from time spent with Brian Johns. One was that he retained a strong egalitarian spirit whatever the public standing that his position held.
“Another was Brian's commitment to a public service ethos. Not providing a running commentary on his successors in leadership roles at the ABC was an element of this. Another was the way in which he could work with both Labor and Liberal governments. While he certainly had strong and clear political views, and they tended broadly to the left, he was of the view that advancing the public good in any role required a capacity to "work across the aisle" and be open to ideas from across the political spectrum. He did enable advertising to commence on SBS under his tenure as Managing Director (then euphemistically termed "sponsorship"), and he was able to work with new ventures in the private sector, such as On Line Opinion, as well as with public sector media and cultural organisations. He also had a good eye for what sorts of content would provide popular with Australian readers and viewers.
“His clearest commitments were to the advancement of Australian culture. A recurring theme of his work in broadcasting and publishing was his commitment to promoting new Australian cultural voices, and he was in that sense a cultural nationalist of the sort who came through Australian public life in the 1960s and 1970s.
Professor Flew concluded his obituary observing that Brian Johns was a very generous and visionary individual.
“Interested in engaging with people and gauging as many opinions as possible, he combined a strong commitment to national culture and public service with an eye to the opportunities presented by new technologies, and the need to actively embrace the possibilities of the digital future. He saw innovation and creativity as linked, and he saw cultural development and engagement with ordinary Australians in their everyday lives as being integrally linked.”
